A Central team would arrive on September 26 to assess the devastation caused by the recent cyclone and floods in Andhra Pradesh. Congress president Sonia Gandhi [Images] is also expected to visit the flood-ravaged areas in a couple of days.  

Speaking to newspersons on Friday, Chief Minister Dr Y S Rajasekhar Reddy said the flood situation has eased with water receding in many places in the state. Relief work is on in full swing as 1.21 lakh people were still lodged in relief camps in the 12 flood-ravaged districts.

Slide show: Andhra, washed away

He said the inflows into Godavari and Krishna rivers in the state had come down though there has been heavy rainfall in the catchment areas in the upper riparian states, including Maharashtra. At Sriramsagar dam on river Godavari, the inflows had come down from 4.5 lakh cusecs on Thursday to 2.5 lakh cusecs now.

"The situation is stable and not alarming as of now but we are keeping a close watch. There is no cause for worry," he said and explained that the inflows at Dowlaishwaram barrage on river Godavari and Prakasam barrage on river Krishna have also come down substantially.

The chief minister said that though 1.5 lakh people were lodged in 473 relief camps when the floods peaked two days ago, the number of relief camps has come down to 237 now with considerable improvement in the situation. Still, about 1.21 lakh people are lodged in relief camps and provided with food, water, medical care and sanitation. The families, which returned to their homes, were provided 20 kilograms of rice each. In all, 1,065 tonnes of rice was distributed free.

Dr Reddy said the death toll due to the cyclone and floods reached 74, with West Godavari accounting for 13 deaths, followed by East Godavari and Khammam with 10 each, Mahbubnagar with 8, Krishna, Guntur, Warangal 7 each, Nalgonda 6, Srikakulam 3, Visakhapatnam [Images] 2 and Vizianagaram with one death.

The chief minister said that the state government would submit a detailed memorandum to the central team, which would be arriving on September 26. Already, a tentative memorandum has been submitted to Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh [Images] two days ago, estimating the preliminary losses due to cyclone and floods at Rs 1,809 crore. The government has sought central assistance of Rs 1,201 crore and 12.74 lakh tonnes of free rice for relief, rehabilitation and restoration works.

United Progressive Alliance chairperson and Congress president Sonia Gandhi was also expected to visit the flood-affected areas of the state in the next few days, Dr Reddy said.

Dr Reddy said that the cyclone-induced heavy rains and floods had affected 4,658 villages in 385 mandals in a 12 districts. Work was in full swing to restore the damaged infrastructure. Repairs are being made to 1,038 irrigation tanks and 432 canals, which have breached into the affected districts. Damaged roads, bridges and culverts were also restored. AP Transco has restored power supply to all affected places. 

To prevent the outbreak of epidemics such as diahorrea, gastroenteritis, malaria, dengue and Japanese encephalitis in the affected areas, 473 medical teams comprising 213 medical and 1,170 para-medical staff had been deputed.

Brushing aside the opposition criticism that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was at Tirupati, during the first day of rains, was not properly apprised of the situation, Reddy said Singh's programme was fixed much earlier and he was given a detailed report about the gravity of the situation.

He said the full extent of losses to the agriculture and horticulture sector is yet to be assessed, as the agricultural fields are still submerged in floodwaters in several areas. Preliminary estimates show that crops spread over an area of 3.07 lakh hectares are damaged. However, detailed assessment would be taken up in a couple of days.